Faculty Development Program

Keeping in mind, the growth and skills developments amongst faculty members of the institute and teaching fraternity, the Institute organized 10 days Faculty Development Programme on “Research Methodology”. The major objective of the Faculty Development Programme was to help the faculty members to understand the concepts of research methodology. It aimed at understanding what the research is, how research has been conducted, how literature review has been done, Hypotheses formulation and testing, methodology used how to analyze the data and its interpretation. It will help the faculty members in guiding the major and minor research projects of the students and writing a research paper.

The sessions were taken by Mr Varun Keshari, Ms Shweta Mogre and Mr. Sumit Zokarkar.

Session I: Research, Objectives, Types and Process of Research taken by Mr. Varun Keshari

In this session he explained the Meaning, Process, Types, Characteristics, and Considerations in selecting a research problem, Steps in formulation of a research problem. He explained that research is a systematic, controlled, empirical and critical investigation of hypothetical propositions about the presumed relations among the natural phenomenon. Different types of research are- Descriptive, Exploratory, Applied, Fundamental, Analytical, Diagnostic, Experimental, Quantitative and Qualitative Research. He also explained in brief about the process of research and various steps involved are

• Formulation of the Research Problem

• Extensive Literature Survey (Review)

• Development of Working Hypothesis

• Preparing the Research Design

• Preparing the Research Design

• Determination of Sampling Design

• Collection of Data

• Analysis of Data

• Hypothesis Testing

• Generalization and Interpretation

• Preparation of the Research Report.

Session II: Literature Review taken by Mr. Varun Keshari

In this session he discussed about the extensive review of a literature and steps involved in conducting a literature review. He explained that the researcher should undertake extensive literature survey connected with the problem. For this purpose the abstracting and indexing journals and published or unpublished bibliographies are first place to go i.e. Academic journals, books, research reports, Government reports etc. The various steps involved in conducting a review are:

• Framing questions for a review

• Identifying relevant work

• Assessing the quality of studies

• Summarizing the evidence

• Interpreting the findings

Session III: Sampling, Techniques and its Types taken by Mr. Varun Keshari

In this session he discussed about Population, Determination of Sampling Design, Sampling Plan, Sample Selection and Types of Samples. He explained that Sampling is the process of selecting units (e.g., people, organizations) from a population of interest so that by studying the sample we may fairly generalize our results back to the population from which they were chosen. Sampling can be of different types:

• Non-probability Sampling: It includes Purposive or Judgmental, Snowball, Quota and Convenience Sampling.

• Probability Sampling: It includes simple random, systematic, stratified and Cluster sampling. Session IV: Measurement Scales taken by Mr. Varun Keshari In this session he explained the different types of measurement scales. Scaling involves creating a continuum upon which measured objects are located. There are four measurement scales (or types of data):

• Nominal Scale

• Ordinal Scale

• Interval Scale

• Ratio Scale

Session IV: Data Collection taken by Mr. Varun Keshari

In this session he discussed about Methods of Data Collection. Various tools for Data Collection are:

• Questionnaire

• Interview- personal and telephonic

• Observation

• Check list

He described the various tools to be used for gathering data, their advantages and disadvantages. The tools chosen to be appropriate to the methods to be adopted for gathering data. He also explained the guidelines to construct a research tool, Closed ended Questionnaire, Open-ended Questionnaire and Combination of both and precautions that must be taken while drafting a questionnaire.

Session V: Questionnaire Formulation taken by Mr. Varun Keshari

This session was taken in a Computer Lab. Participants were asked to select a research topic and formulate a questionnaire on the same. The formulated questionnaire was discussed by each participant and corrections are made on the basis of guidelines to be followed while constructing a research tool. He also discussed about the validity and reliability of the scale to be used for data collection.

In this session she talked in detail about the formulation of working hypotheses, she explained that working hypothesis is tentative assumptions made in order to draw out and test its logical or empirical consequences. She explained that once sample data has been gathered through an observational study or experiment, statistical inference allows analysts to assess evidence in favor or some claim about the population from which the sample has been drawn. The methods of inference used to support or reject claims based on sample data are known as tests of significance. She also discussed about the concept of Null Hypotheses (Ho) and Alternate Hypotheses (H1), level of significance, Type I and Type II Error. Various steps involved in testing for Statistical Significance:

In this session she discussed the various types of tests used for testing the hypotheses, type of data on which test is applied and how to calculate the degree of freedom. She talked about hypothesis testing, how the hypothesis may be tested through the use of one or more tests such as:

• Chi-square test

• T-test

• F-test

• Z-Test

• Anova

She explained how such tests are applied depending upon the nature and objectives of the research inquiry and the mathematical calculation of various tests and data by taking practical research examples and how hypothesis testing will result in either accepting the hypothesis or in rejecting it.

In this session he explained how to test hypotheses and various calculations and tests like chi-square test, t-test; Z-test, F-test can be done in MS Excel. He explained how to feed data in to the excel sheet and how to classify the raw data into some purposeful and be usable categories. Coding operation is usually done through which the categories of data are transformed into symbols that may be tabulated and counted and how to apply Z-test, chisquare test, t-test, percentage analysis on the research data and average can be calculated with the help of MS Excel.

In this session he discussed about the how interpretation and referencing has been done. He explained that Interpretation is the process of making sense of numerical data that has been collected, analyzed, and presented. A common method of assessing numerical data is known as statistical analysis, and the activity of analyzing and interpreting data in order to make predictions is known as inferential statistics processing and analyzing data, reporting the findings, results and discussion, interpretation of research data and how to write references. It is through interpretation that the researcher can well under- stand the abstract principle that works beneath his findings. Interpretation leads to the establishment of explanatory concepts that can serve as a guide for future research studies; it opens new avenues of intellectual adventure and stimulates the quest for more knowledge. He also explained that “Citation” is a reference to a published or unpublished source. Citation is an abbreviated alphanumeric expression embedded in the body of an intellectual work that denotes an entry in the bibliographic references section of the work for the purpose of acknowledging the relevance of the works of others to the topic of discussion at the spot where the citation appears. He discussed that Citation content can vary depending on the type of source and may include:

Session X: Format of writing a research report and guidelines to be followed for report writing taken by Mr. Varun Keshari

In this session he discussed that the researcher has to prepare the report of what has been done by the him. Writing of report must be done with great care keeping in view the following: Preliminary Body, Main Text and End Matter Preliminary Body: It contains:

• Title page

• Researcher's declaration

• The certificate of the research supervisor

• Acknowledgement

• Table of contents List of tables

• List of graphs and charts

Main Text:

Introduction:

• Theoretical background of the topic

• Statement of the problem

• Review of literature

• The scope of the study

• The objectives of the study

• Hypothesis to be tested

• Definition of the concepts

• Model if any

The design of the study:

• Methodology

• Sources of data

• Sampling plan

• Data collected instrument

• Field work

• Data processing and analysis

He explained that a good research report is one which does this task efficiently and effectively. As such it must be prepared keeping the following precautions in view that while determining the length of the report (since research reports vary greatly in length), one should keep in view the fact that it should be long enough to cover the subject but short enough to maintain interest. In fact, report-writing should not be a means to learning more and more about less and less. Aresearch report should not, if this can be avoided, be dull; it should be such as to sustain reader's interest. Abstract terminology and technical jargon should be avoided in a research report. The report should be able to convey the matter as simply as possible. This, in other words, means that report should be written in an objective style in simple language, avoiding expressions such as “it seems,” “there may be” and the like. Readers are often interested in acquiring a quick knowledge of the main findings and as such the report must provide a ready availability of the findings. For this purpose, charts, graphs and the statistical tables may be used for the various results in the main report in addition to the summary of important findings. The layout of the report should be well thought out and must be appropriate and in accordance with the objective of the research problem. Objective of the study, the nature of the problem, the methods employed and the analysis techniques adopted must all be clearly stated in the beginning of the report in the form of introduction.